Stunning Footage Captures Blue Whale Feeding

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been fully engrossed with David Attenborough’s latest romp into the natural world, ‘The Hunt’. If you tuned in last night, you would’ve been treated the episode I’ve been eagerly waiting for, ‘Hunger at Sea’.

Now this episode was full to the brim with incredible sequences featuring ocean dwellers from all corners of the globe, ranging from deep sea squid that literally fish for their food, to the dorado, tirelessly chasing down flying fish in the open ocean.

If you’ve yet to see it, I strongly recommend it. It is available now to UK residents on the BBC website.

One part of the episode really stood out for me though, and that was the sequence showing a blue whale feeding.

My obsession with the ocean spans my entire life, but the blue whale has so very rarely been filmed, that its mere existence still astounds me. It is so difficult to get an appreciation for the sheer size of something like the blue whale on screen, that its only when put into frame with something that we are all familiar with, that you really get an idea of how incredible this animal really is.

This clip shows a diver getting some spectacular footage of a blue whale swim by, and really gives you an idea of the scale of these huge animals.

photo credit: David Reichart/SilverbackFilms/BBC

The film making team behind the hunt worked tirelessly to get the shots of the blue whale feeding, the result of which is truly mind blowing. Witnessing this creatures enormous grooved throat expand as it fills with water is something you have to see to believe. The team were lucky enough to capture several sequences of the whale lunging into the densely packed krill it was feeding on, putting it all together to create a truly spectacular sequence that I could water over and over again.